Vault
Coca-Cola's bright-green hybrid arrived in 2006 with a promise: "Drinks like a soda, kicks like an energy drink." For fans of the dearly departed Surge, Vault was the second coming — until Coke pulled the plug in 2011 and brought back Mello Yello instead.
Vault began as a test market in June 2005 across southern and midwestern states before Coca-Cola rolled it out nationally in February 2006, backed by Super Bowl XL commercials and the slogan 'Drinks like a soda, kicks like an energy drink.' The formula was direct: a bright green citrus soda with aggressive caffeine — 70.5 mg per 12-ounce can, well above Mountain Dew's 54 — and the hypersweet taste that defined the era's soda wars. For many drinkers the real appeal was nostalgia: Vault shared much of its DNA with Surge, Coca-Cola's discontinued 90s Mountain Dew rival, and fans read it as Surge's second coming.
Variants came and went — Vault Zero, the guarana-boosted Vault Red Blitz in 2007 — and for a mid-2000s window it was a gas-station staple. But in 2011 Coca-Cola made its choice: Vault was discontinued in favor of a reintroduced Mello Yello, the known quantity winning out over the hybrid experiment. The cult that mourned it overlaps almost entirely with the Surge-revival cult — people chasing that exact green, over-caffeinated taste of being sixteen with a gas-station fountain drink the size of a bucket.
Similar items
Surge
Coca-Cola's aggressively marketed neon-green citrus soda that positioned itself as the extreme-sports answer to Pepsi's Mountain Dew. Heavy on caffeine and attitude, Surge fueled the mayhem marketing of the late 90s before vanishing from shelves in 2003 — only to surge back after a passionate fan movement brought it to Amazon in 2014.
Mountain Dew Code Red
The cherry-red Mountain Dew that felt genuinely edgy in 2001 — a new flavor, a darker can, and a tongue-staining color that made regular Dew look tame. It was the drink of LAN parties and late-night gaming.
Josta
PepsiCo's high-energy guaraná drink, marketed as "Better do the good stuff now" and remembered for its dark snarling-cat branding. Often credited as the first energy drink from a major U.S. beverage company, it arrived years ahead of the energy-drink boom — and was gone by 1999.
OK Soda
Coca-Cola's aggressively ironic mid-'90s experiment: a soft drink built on market research showing that "OK" was the most recognizable word on Earth. The gray neo-noir cans were illustrated by alternative-comics artists Daniel Clowes and Charles Burns, the slogan promised only that "Things are going to be OK," and the whole thing was dead within a year.